Did You Notice I Was Afraid?
by Fizzie-lizzie
Summary: [One-shot] This one is pretty short, so shoot me. Basically, Mia goes to a concert. 'Nuff said.


Disclaimer: the usual. (Stroke 9 owns "Not Nothing", New Found Glory owns "The story So Far". In that order.)  
  
A/N: well... I'm sure you'll be able to tell where this one is going, but that is a-okay.  
  
(As for Romeo/Juliet... I'm working on the ending to the next chapter right now... just not quite sure where I want it to end for now. Mostly because I really don't want this to become a 20 something chapter long story. So next few will probably be longer.)  
  
I took some liberties with Skinnerbox because I couldn't remember things exactly.  
  
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"I love you Mia. Will you marry me?"  
  
"I love you too. But no."  
  
"Wha—?"  
  
"Michael, I just don't feel like I'm ready. I mean, I'm eighteen, Michael. EIGHTEEN."  
  
"But we love each other."  
  
"Yes, we do, which is why it shouldn't matter if we wait a few years."  
  
"H-how long?"  
  
"Get back to me when I'm twenty-three."  
  
"Mia..."  
  
"Michael, I was joking! I'll let you know as soon as I'm ready. Okay?"  
  
"Okay..."  
  
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Mia waited impatiently in the line of the club, wishing for once she could act like a royal bitch and just go to the front of the line. But she didn't. No, instead, she had to be self-righteous and wait like everyone else.  
  
There had to be forty maybe fifty people in front of her and the concert started in seven minutes. Seven minutes! And she still had to find a seat close enough to the stage that her poster could be read.  
  
After all, this was her absolute favorite band. It would kind suck to be sitting so far back that her poster would be pointless. Yes, that would really really suck. She'd gotten help from her friends, trying to figure out the perfect thing to say, as a fan girl and everything. Until she finally decided that everything everyone else was saying... well it just wasn't her.  
  
So nearly four and a half posters later (there was an incident in there concerning a PMSal girl and a dog, but we won't go into that) she finally felt like this was it. But she still had to get INSIDE the club.  
  
Mia breathed heavily onto her gloved hands, her poster tucked loosely under one arm. Standing outside a club with Lars in New York on a Friday night, really was not what she had pictured herself doing right now. No, she had imagined herself flirting casually with the drummer, or maybe the bass player. Maybe she'd even get a chance to talk with the lead singer, though usually he was surrounded by overly enthusiastic fan girls, despite that he had a girlfriend.  
  
Finally! She had gotten to the door.  
  
"I.D.?" the bouncer grunted at her deeply. Mia sighed. She always got carded, she didn't know whether to be irritated or take it as a compliment. Well, if nothing else, at least the guy didn't recognize her as being a princess. That was some unwanted attention she didn't want right now.  
  
She let him take her I.D. and inspect it. He handed it back to her, but still wouldn't let her through.  
  
"Poster," he grunted again. She handed it over embarrassedly, she hadn't been planning on anyone seeing it until later. But being a princess, she understood the security measures.  
  
He snickered at it and handed it back to her. Great. Just the reaction she wanted. Mia rolled it up tightly and started to enter. But Lars wasn't with her.  
  
She turned around. There he was arguing with the bouncer. Mia groaned. At least Lars hadn't pulled out any weapons yet.  
  
"What's going on?" she asked the bouncer.  
  
He eyed her warily, like a small child that was too curious for her own good. "I don't like the look of this guy."  
  
"Oh, him? He's.... he's my dad," she inwardly cringed.  
  
The bouncer looked at her suspiciously. "Really, he is!" Mia insisted. "He's just really over protective, you know how it is."  
  
The guy let them through hesitantly. "But no funny business," he called.  
  
Lars gave Mia a funny look as they walked in to the club. "I know, I know, Lars. You're not old enough to be my dad. I just had to get you inside, okay?"  
  
He shrugged and let her lead on. It was just this once after all.  
  
The lights inside the club were already darkening. She hurried down to the lowest tier and chose table a little off to the side. Not wanting to draw too much attention to herself, yet.  
  
The lights dimmed further, leaving the stage the brightest lit thing in the room. Slowly the band filed onto the stage, and the people in the club erupted. Turning away from the stage, Mia smiled, glad that Skinnerbox had become so popular.  
  
"Alright, tonight we're starting with a song called, 'Not nothin'," said the drummer. "Consider yourselves lucky, this is the first time we're playing it live."  
  
The crowd in the club screamed. Well, the girls of the crowd screamed with joy, the boys just clapped heartily.  
  
Than the drums started immediately, and the audience became silent as the drums were followed by an outbreak of two electric guitars playing cords, and one soloist. Micheal.  
  
"Hello I'm sitting here / Thinking and writing / Writing and talking / With out you."  
  
She heard the harshness in his voice on the last phrase. "With out you." He was unhappy with her no doubt. Mia had lied to Michael telling him she had a state affair she was required to attend with her grandmother at the Plaza. This was the sort of anniversary concert of Skinnerbox, six years now. And still going strong, though some of the members have changed.  
  
"Situated in the corner of the corner / So far from nothing / Suspecting not accepting / That it's true."  
  
Michael moved off the stage, to the opposite corner of the club, overwhelming the table of girls closest to him. They all screamed as he flashed a smile at each of them. Mia knew that smile. It said, 'I'll only put up with you because there's nothing else I can do.' Well, Michael, she thought. Its what you get for being so damn cute and so damn talented.  
  
"It really its me when I'm / Walking into the market / I hear the things I used to say / Is it wrong to be here anyway?"  
  
He climbed back onto the stage, and started staring into the back of the club. Like he thought he might recognize someone. Oh shit. That's where Lars was. Michael closed his eyes, letting his guitar hang by his side, and holding the mike close to his mouth.  
  
"Fade away / What was I thinking when I thought I could make you stay / What was I thinking when I thought I was right / Not nothin'"  
  
Mia melted. His voice got her every time.  
  
"I'm on to something here / It's all becoming clear / Clearly confusing / Less than amusing / Castrated like a corpse to a coroner / So close to nothing / Forgetful not regretful / Of what I am."  
  
She smiled again. While Michael was writing this song, she had lying near by. A sort of joke between them.  
  
"It really hits me when I'm / Hanging with other monkeys / Thinking of shit to say / Is it wrong to be here anyway."  
  
She laughed openly now. Monkeys. She still couldn't believe he put that line in. She had suggested it as a joke. Michael had been stuck, though he knew sort of what he wanted to write. So Mia suggested, "hanging with other monkeys." Some of Michael's friends looked like apes to her... he had only laughed and wrote down some words. God she loved him.  
  
"I'm on to something / It's something I'm on to / But it's really nothing."  
  
He was focused solely on the music now, whatever had distracted him earlier was gone.  
  
"What was I thinking when I thought I could make you stay / What was I thinking I could make you stay / Fade away / What was I thinking when I thought I was right?"  
  
The last chords finished loudly. Silence filled the small club for a few seconds before resounding applause was heard.  
  
Mia stood holding her sign up, waiving it above her head slowly, shouting her own praise. Those around her looked on the scene like she was a crazed stalker. She didn't mind. She was a crazed stalker, but she was also Michael's girlfriend. Being a crazed stalker comes guaranteed with the package of dating a budding rock star.  
  
Michael looked her direction, shielding his eyes from the stage lights trying to read her sign. Mia felt her spine shiver with nervousness.  
  
"Hold on guys, let me just read this sign," he called back to his band mates. They waited patiently, the club became quiet once more. But Mia kept standing, holding the sign above her head.  
  
"Michael.... Moscovitz," he read slowly into a microphone. "Will you ... please marry me now?" he finished.  
  
Michael laughed lightly, "It's a good thing my girlfriend isn't here," he said towards Mia. The lights must've been very blinding. "She might not appreciate your sign. Thanks for the offer though!"  
  
Mia flushed with embarrassment. Okay, this was not at all what she had planned. She figured after reading the sign he would rush down to where she stood, and go against his ideas of PDA. They would hug and kiss, people would make cat-calls, girls would scowl. And she would be happy as Michael finished the concert. Indeed, this is not how she had envisioned it.  
  
She sat down as the next song started Mia heard some titters as she thought about what she could do. Ah. She pulled out a sharpie and turned the poster over. Mia wrote as quickly as she could, trying to make sure the letters were bold enough to read.  
  
Michael sang the song the next song. It was as light hearted as the first. But he felt himself being weighted down. Mia. He hadn't proposed to her since she was eighteen, but she was twenty now. And he was beginning to wonder if he really would have to wait until she was twenty-three. The girl who had just proposed to him was scratching furiously onto the back of her poster. He smiled sadly, fan girls. Sometimes they just didn't get the point that his heart was already taken.  
  
This song finished and once again the crowd was clapping and shouting appreciatively. The girl was on her feet again. This time, he didn't say what he read into the microphone.  
  
It said, "I am your girlfriend, dorkus! 3".  
  
Wait a second. He stepped off stage instinctively clutching the cordless mike in his hand. He walked towards the girl while she lowered the sign uneasily.  
  
Mia.  
  
That explained the large figure in the back of the club he thought he had recognized. Lars.  
  
He nearly dropped the mike as he hurdled over and past chairs and other tables to get where she stood, waiting. She smiled at him.  
  
"Will you marry me, Michael Moscovitz?" she asked getting down onto one knee.  
  
He pulled her back up and kissed her. "I love you," Michael said. "Are you sure you're ready?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
They hugged and kissed once more. The club was buzzing, no one knew exactly what was going on, but everyone could see what was happening.  
  
The spot light had been turned on, featuring the two of them, and it followed as Michael pulled Mia on stage with him.  
  
That's when he remembered he still had the mike in his other hand.  
  
"You know how they say you learn something new everyday?" Michael asked rhetorically. "Well, I've just learned something."  
  
He paused and slipped his arm around Mia's waist. She grinned at him  
  
"Before you turn down a marriage proposal, you uh..." he cleared his throat embarrassed. "You better make sure it's not someone you know asking." He kissed her again.  
  
"I just wanted to let you all know how happy I am," he murmured. "I am going to marry my high school sweetheart, Mia, the Princess of Genovia." This time it was Mia's turn to blush, and she hugged him.  
  
The band clapped and put down their instruments came to congratulate them. The club followed suite giving the two a sincere standing ovation.  
  
"So, Princess," Michael started when things had started to settle down. "You lied to me, you told me you couldn't come to the concert tonight. Some state affair you had to attend to."  
  
Mia looked a little guilty, and grabbed the mike from him.  
  
"I didn't ENTIRELY lie. After all, I had to get myself a husband, and that's an affair of the state enough. And I AM a politician after all," she said merrily.  
  
The audience chuckled.  
  
Michael just looked at her and grinned. "Can't say I'm complaining either," he finally commented.  
  
"Okay, than! For our next song, we'll play 'The Story So Far'."  
  
Mia made a move to get off the stage, but Michael wouldn't let her go. Instead he got off the stage grabbed an empty chair and brought it back for her to sit in. She looked around embarrassed.  
  
Than he started to play. This wasn't even a song she recognized. She hadn't heard it before either.  
  
A simple drumbeat followed by the bass being strummed started first. And than Michael sang.  
  
"I can't remember the time or place / Or what you were wearing / It's unclear about how we met / All I know it was the best conversation I've ever had..."  
  
It wasn't as light as the other two songs, but Mia felt the heart behind it. This was how Michael really felt about it all. Serious, calm, soothing, slowly confident.  
  
"Until this day I've never found someone / With eyes as wide as yours."  
  
He looked at her. Mia was as beautiful as ever, glowing in the stage lights. She always looked so uncomfortable in front of an audience, but tonight, it was as though she was merely basking in the sunlight. Did he really have this affect on her?  
  
"I've been searching up and down this coast / Overlooking what I need the most..."  
  
He thought back to when he first proposed. Michael had written this song soon after that. Despite keeping it a secret. He had never let the band speak of it to anyone, or even practice with Mia around. He just hadn't felt right about playing it, until now.  
  
"... Did you notice I was afraid? / I thought I'd run out of things to say / Two more hours until today burns this away / And it starts all over again...."  
  
Michael was standing closely behind her. He wasn't playing this song, only singing. So Mia slipped her hand into his, it was sweaty. Michael was nervous. She brought his hand to her lips and lightly kissed it. He didn't need to be nervous.  
  
"...The sky will never look the same again / 'Til you show me how it could be..."  
  
Michael could feel himself smiling through the music.  
  
"... And everything else is irrelevant / To the story so far / A coincidence that you looked like her from afar..."  
  
Michael grinned at himself. Really? A coincidence? After tonight, that line would have totally new meaning for him.  
  
"...Is it true that you like to sleep alone? / Or is it what you just tell everyone?..."  
  
She let go of his hand as he took the mike into both of his.  
  
"And when the world turns over / I'll keep my ears to the wall / And when the world turns over / I'll keep my feet straight on the ground."  
  
"The sky will never look the same again / 'Till you show me how it could be..."  
  
The music trailed off. Michael was on his knees in front of Mia.  
  
"I love you, Mia Thermopolis," Michael said clearly.  
  
"I know," she whispered. "I love you too." 


End file.
